Introduction

Welcome to the first Nikon Lens Test Report here in OpticalLimits! Few lenses are sharper
than those classic 50mm standard lenses at medium aperture settings so let's start
with the Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.8 D, a lens which surely has its place in many photo bags
out there thanks to its very low price tag and marginal weight.

All upcoming tests will be performed using a Nikon D200, a 10MP APS-C DSLR with a 1.5x
cropping factor. The field-of-view of the Nikkor is equivalent to 75mm on classic full
frame SLRs so the standard lens is transformed to a moderate tele lens within this scope.

The optical construction is made of 6 elements in 5 groups without any special elements.
The minimum focus distance is 0.45m resulting in a max. object magnification of 1:6.6.
The filter size is 52mm. As hinted above the lens is very compact (64x39mm) and
light-weight (155g). The aperture mechanism feature 7 aperture blades.

Despite its very low price tag the build quality of the lens is very decent.
The outer barrel is made of polycarbonate combined with a metal mount.
The rather small rubberized focus ring operates very smooth.
As you can see above the lens extends a little bit towards closer focus
distances. The front element does not rotate so using a polarizer is no problem.
The lens has no internal AF motor and relies on a slotted drive screw
operated by the camera. As a result AF operation will generate a moderate
degree of noise. The AF speed is very decent on the D200.